December 2005

Hello All --

It's December, I'm in the holiday spirit and I want to revel in feeling good, so here's the deal. If you're a former life coaching client or Artist's Way student of mine or if you're neither and you just want to share, please send me an email updating me on where you stand on goals we may have worked on together. I'd love to read those progress reports. Call it your gift to me and to yourself since it's a chance to check in and assess things as 2005 comes to a resounding close.

I hope your holiday season is everything you want it to be!


Own Your Life

Sometimes I listen to people who consistently lament their lot in life -- and let me confess that I am occasionally one of them -- and I wonder what it will take for them to say, "Enough. It's time for change." Real, honest-to-God change. Not just lip service, but the kind of action that feels so natural and satisfying they'll wonder why they didn't do it sooner.

If I were to concoct a formula to jump start this kind of change, it would come down to this -- make the choice to own your life in a myriad of ways:

  • Own your age. Accept it. You are what you are. This is what 30-40-50-60 looks like. Your possibilities are still endless. Stop limiting yourself because of a number. It's a waste of precious time, and isn't that kind of ironic?

  • Own your spirit. If you want a religion or a spiritual practice in your life, make it your business to have one. Do some healthy questioning. Let it inhabit you. And be confident enough in it that you don't feel the need to hammer it over everyone else's head.

  • Own your sexuality. Over-sexed or under-sexed or right in between. Gay or straight or bi. Kinky or conventional. Indulge it, savor it, express the heck out of it, put it out there. Be one with your body.

  • Own your talents. You have gifts. You can use them or you can waste them. 'Nuff said.

  • Own your decisions. Your job is boring, unbearable, insane, stressful. Your relationship is boring, unbearable, insane, stressful. You took the job. You chose the relationship. Make them interesting, bearable, sane, stress-free. Or find a healthier, better fit.

  • Own your intellect. You can stimulate your mind or let it turn to mush. Only you can find your ideal time balance between Desperate Housewives and Virginia Woolf.

  • Own your dreams. Pretending you don't really want to study voice because you've never made the time before doesn't cut it. Either pursue the dream wholeheartedly or make real, true peace with deleting it from your life.

    If you'd like to "officially" seal the deal on all or some of the above, make up a deed or contract and commit to full out ownership of your life. Whatever it takes.


    If you don't run your own life, somebody else will.
    --John Atkinson